best anti-virus

What are the names (and web sites) of the three best and easiest to use anti-virus programs? Thank you very much.

 

The only one you need AVG http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php
and it's free.

 

AVG free is the easiest, I believe.

 

IMHO...

Number 1 - Norton AntiVirus 2004 --> http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_9xnt/ Been using NAV since I got into computers...
Number 2 - eTrust --> http://www.my-etrust.com/
Number 3 - AVG (as mentioned above)

 

The best AV is an updated AV. It doesn't matter what it's called or who you get it from, free or bought. If it's not up-to-date and kept up-to-date it's almost worthless. Now that doesn't mean that it has to be the newest version on the market, it just means it has to be updated on a regular basis. Personally I prefer one that will do auto updates whenever I'm on line. That way I don't have to wonder when I last remembered to run an update! That happens when one gets old!

 

I would stay away from this one.

The reason: It will slow your computer to a crawl.

I was using Norton but recently I switched to eTrust. ETrust doesn't slow my computer and doesnt tie up resources. It works in the background. Anyway that is my two cents.

 

Well stated Brenda...

El Camino...

IMHO in this day an age with all the cheap fast PC's (ie: heck...you can buy a Dell P4 2.66 GHZ with 128 MB RAM for $499 US) I don't think that this is an issue...maybe with the older slower PC's. I'm running a P4 2.0 GHz with 1.0 (just upgraded from 512 MB the other day) GB RAM that I built myself that's just about 2 years old and NAV runs just fine. Like I stated I've been running NAV ever since I got into puters and have never had any probs. Once again as stated IMHO.

 

Importance of Updating?

This is meant as info-gathering(for me). I had Norton AV2002, and was-still am-fanatical about staying current with the latest definitions. My computer became infected with a dackdoor.trojan virus, which NAV2002 found but could not repair. I ultimately uninstalled NAV2002, and bought and installed Norton Internet Security 2003. This time, when the backdoor.trojan warning pops up, the action taken was "found and deleted ", whereas before it said "unable to repair this file" and then "access to file denied ".
Once, while still with NAV2002, after the spontaneous notification, I did a full system scan, and found nothing. With the help of some kind folks on this BBS, I did an online scan using RAV-and found 4 instances of infection.
So, I'm wondering, what good is staying up to date with Live Update- when a two year old NAV offers no protection anyway?

 

skaler2k,

The situation that you describe is one of options set, not of capability. Any virus found by 2002 will be quarantined, which is why the scan didn't "find it ". Access denied message is an indication that the download - to the virus, is denied. If you would have looked in Reports > Quarantined items, you would have found it there. From there you delete.

Extract from NAV's log:

Date:4/30/2004, Time 22:41:32

The file

D\Documents and Settings\local, etc

File\content.IE5\09|v4ER[1]exploit.htm is infected with the Trojan Horse virus

Same message three times - 1st time "unable to repair message (DON'T want it repaired!!!), 2nd time the "access denied" message and then "file was quarantined" message. I deleted it out of the quarantined file - end of story.

No one AV is the "best ". Look here for AV ratings based on performance on a month by month basis http://www.virusbtn.com/ - click on the "VB100 Awards ". On that basis, NOD32 comes off the best. Others will disagree. It is also wise to check your system periodically with on-line services http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm and Symantec has an on-line checking service as well.

Regards - Charles